Let’s be honest with each other for a minute, shall we lambs? We care about the Pens–Wings Game 6 tonight. We might even lay a gentleman’s wager on the game with our degenerate gambling buddies. But this game pales in comparison to Game 6 of the Mighty Oil and the ‘Canes. Rather than looking to tonight’s game, the real thing we should all sit back and remember is the greatest single sporting event we have ever witnessed in our lives.

Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2006

Watch the Youtube clip above to get yourself back in the frame of mind to remember those wonderful days.

Ready? Good.

We could write a book the size of the Tokyo Yellow Pages about all of the amazing things that happened during The Run, but there’s no time for that, lambs. No time at all. Let’s just remember Game 6. The Oilers forced a sixth game much like the Penguins have this year, with an OT win to stave off elimination. Local King (and still the man) Fernando Pisani scored an OT shorthanded goal to end Game 5 in Carolina, sending the series back to Oil Country for another game. We remember it like it was yesterday. When Pisani scored in OT to force Game 6, we high-fived our buddy so hard that both our arms nearly came off in the process. Our immediate thought was, “What organ will we have to sell to get a ticket to Game 6?”

It was a kidney, and we got our ticket, luckily enough. Does significantly shortening one’s life span to attend a hockey game make sense? If it’s SCF 2006 G6 it does. We got there early so we could go to the beer gardens, and we tried to think of what we could do to show the Oil how determined we were as a fan. This was long before the birth of the OilersNation, remember, and the only way we could talk hockey was to stand on a bench at the Greyhound Station and scream our opinions at hobos and travellers.

Anyway, in order to show the universe that we had brought our “Game 6 Game” to Rexall on that sunny June night, we drank 16 hockey beers—one for every win required to win the Cup. Remember though, there was beer gardens beforehand, and we basically arrived at 8am on game day to start the party. We would never recommend drinking 16 beers during a game at Rexall, unless it meant the Oilers would take home the Cup.

Once we’d been out in the sun with the rest of the OilersNation, we made our way inside to our seats. While we were screaming the national anthem at the top of our lungs Joey Moss-style, we realized that never again in our lives would we want something as we wanted a win (this was later eclipsed by how much we wanted a Game 7 win, but that’s a tale for another day). Not marriage, not children, not a vaccine for a terrible disfiguring plague that was brought to Earth by a stray comet. Nothing will ever be as important as a win that night.

“Win on home ice,” we thought, “Don’t let the ‘Canes come into our house and hoist Lord Stanley.”

And as you will witness below, they didn’t. As we recall (16 hockey beers, remember) the ‘Canes didn’t even have a shot for something like 20 minutes of stop-time hockey at one point. When each and every one of the Oilers’ four glorious tear-causing goals went in that night we stood and shook our pom poms with the best of them. We saw Prime Minister Harper one section over, high fiving fans too, much to the delight/terror of his security detail. We saw beer swilling louts like ourselves hugging the little old ladies next to them, and people who would ordinarily pass one another on the street without so much as a “how do you do?” pointing and cheering and screaming the words “We want the Cup” over the deafening roar.

Was it the greatest game ever played in Modern Oilers’ history? We think so. Never has a game meant so much, and never had the Oilers responded with such a smothering, dominant win. Unless we personally witness the Oilers win the Stanley Cup and raise it high above their heads, it is the greatest thing our eyes have ever witnessed in our entire lives. Note to Hockey Gods: we will do whatever, kill whomever, eat whatever or get shot by whatever you chose to make that happen.

Has it only been two years since that glorious night? What did you all do SCF G6?

I was in a bar in Raleigh, 'Lucky B's' (owned by Bates Battaglia) wearing my Jason Smith jersey and surrounded by Oilers haters. http://www.newsobserver.com/796/story/452050.html
http://www.newsobserver.com/1142/story/452101.html

I was lucky enough to be at the game, and from my vantage point (Behind Rollie for the 1st and 3rd) the thing I will never forget is what an amazing game Pronger had. I know, I know; everyone and their dog hates the guy for leaving, but it was in my humble opinion one of the most dominant performances by a player I've ever seen.

I wouldn't have appreciated it as much watching from home, but being there and witnessing the flawless breakout passes, his positioning, and his play around his own net made me realize that he was the best player by far on the ice at that time. I guess it doens't mean as much now after he handled his departure from E-town so poorly, but I would say that might be the greatest single playoff performance by an Oiler...ever. Bring on the arguments for and against this, and of course let the Pronger bashing begin. Just keep in mind who was largely responsible for getting us to game 7.

As I recall it, Conklin was considered the back up but gassed it so badly when he came in in G1 that MacT probably thought (and rightly so) "This guy is an unrecoverable puddle and shan't play again with his shattered nerves"

Then he threw in the Juice, who promptly got the Oil blown out in Game 2 before putting in a tremendous 5 game stretch.

I debate your recollection on game 2. Jussi was no saviour but the team shat the bed more than anything else. To this day I believe that the no show the Oilers pulled in game 2 was the sole reason they lost the cup but the last guy I pin that one on is Jussi.

jdrevenge - the game Stevie blocked the shot with his face was game 1,2,3,4,5,6,7.......106

I can recall playing a game of Atom when our coach told us "If you aren't going to play defense, you won't have a goalie." And then he proceeded to let our goalie sit on the bench for a whole period. Needless to say the scoreboard at Callingwood Arena was turned off at that point as the score was run up against us.

To be honest I don't recall that MacT was rotating goalies. Roloson was playing so well that the only way he would have been pulled was if M-A-B the S-O-B smashed into him and blew out his K-N-E-E... oh wait.

And PS It's not our fault hockey beers kill brain cells. They put something extra in those Rexall beers. A vendor told me once that they only clean the beer lines at the end of the season, so a lot of goop clogs up the lines. That goop is what supercharges the beers, and leads to fans thinking "$7.75 for draft beer? How can I lose?"

So good in fact that I don't recall Prime Minister Harper being at that game at all, or Chris Pronger for tht matter.

Although I do recall having a hell of a time...right up until I was taken by two big men to the bowels of Rexall for a cavity search as a result of spilling my beer on some distinguished looking guy in a fancy suit.

I was at Filthy's. I literally get choked up whenever I see the youtube videos of that summer. I lived right on 99th & whyte. Car was broken into twice during that cup run. Good times, good times.... sigh.

It was a great game! I was watching it at a bar in Portland OR, with around 150 or so people but only around 4 of us watching the game. What a sad country to be in trying to watch hockey!! It still sickens me that those HurriBLEEPS and their bandwagon fans, what did they average around 5,000 a game?? Wow thats passion! Got the greatest trophy in sports. Had to turn off the game after ENG had to go throw-up, couldnt stand to watch them contaminate the Lord Stanley!